THANK YOU, New York Times! DAMN YOU, Koizumi!

That sonofabitch has done it again, but this time, the New York Times isn't letting him get away with it:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/18/opinion/18tue3.html?th&emc=th

If you STILL haven't registered for the online version of the Times, it's really about time for you to so. But if you insist on NOT registering (or if you don't click on that link within 7 days), then the editorial is about Japan's Prime Minister Koizumi's visit to the Yakusuni Shrine, which not only honours Japan's 2.5 million war dead, but also 14 Class A war criminals. This editorial is quite important because the NYT is more credible than rags like the People's Daily, and even the editors of the NYT believe that "The shrine visit is a calculated affront to the descendants of those victimized by Japanese war crimes."

(UPDATE: here's the same article from the International Herald Tribute - no registration required: http://www.iht.com//articles/2005/10/18/opinion/edjapan.php)

To hell with you, those of you who tell me to forgive and forget about the atrocities that Japan committed during the Second World War. PM Koizumi is complicit in the distortion of historical facts and historical memory. Imagine how Jewish people would react if Chancellor Angela Merkel were to pay her respects at the graves of the likes of Herman Goring or Heimlich Himmler, or if members of her coalition try to whitewash Nazi atrocities.

My biggest fear is that future generations of Chinese and non-Chinese will forget about the crimes that Japan committed in the early 20th century. Too many young Chinese people today are devotees to Japanese culture (pop and otherwise) while sometimes showing disdain for Chinese culture (at least in part), and are too forgiving of Japan's war crimes. Too few young people, Chinese or not, care much for history. Vince and Henrietta, I'm not talking about you, okay?

It's not that I encourage hatred towards individual Japanese people. I don't even think about war reparations. All I ask for is the acknowledgement that Japan committed nasty deeds several decades ago, and that Japanese people are made aware of these deeds, as every German knows of Germany's Nazi past. It's that simple. The war criminals are mostly dead, including the ones who got off scot-free and became top politicians and corporate executives, so there's no need for Mossad-style arrests and assassinations. The danger is the right-wing politicians who downplay Japan's crimes against humanity. They must be stopped. They should be expelled from the Liberal Democratic Party. If not, Japan's corporations should stop funding this party's campaigns. If not, we should boycott their goods. We Chinese people need our Simon Wiesenthals.

And yes, I'm aware that Mao Zedong and Chiang Kaishek were responsible for many more deaths than Japanese troops were. I never said I was ever a fan of those sonsofbitches.